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Mono vs Stereo LP's

I recently purchased a 1958 mono issue of Art Farmer's "Farmer's Market" on the New Jazz purple label (New Jazz was a Prestige specialty label) The record looks to be in near mint condition and was carefully cleaned by me with a record vac. The recording, however, plays with a constant background noise or hiss. The dealer who sold me the record has a reputable history and is telling me the noise is because I need to play the record with a mono cartridge rather than my stereo Shelter 501. I have read the threads on Audiogon regarding mono cartridges which say they can sound better, but don't suggest there would be the type on noise I am hearing with stereo. I have many other mono records of similar vintage and have never encountered this before. Anyone have a similar experience to this?
jyprez

Showing 2 responses by eldartford

eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Lots of old recordings had hiss (from tube electronics and pre Dolby/DBX tape recorders). To overcome this most preamps had noise filters, to roll off response as low as 6000 Hz. The best noise filters were "dynamic" (they cut in and out according to whether the music was loud or soft) and the very best dynamic noise filter was a thing called "Autocorrelator" invented by Bob Carver.

Why don't you just sit back and enjoy that authentic 1950s sound?
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
4yanx..."No record cleaner will remove that, it is part of the recording".

Have you heard the "record cleaning" that can be done by digitizing the signal and processing it with a computer? Absolutely amazing. I am talking about recordings made almost 100 years ago, barely audible in original form, but where the cleaned up version sounds almost acceptable today.
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